Ginny the Tomb Raider
by AlwaystheCatLady
Summary: Ginny decides on a different career.


_**Ginny the Tomb Raider**_

Team: Chudley Cannons

Position: Chaser #3

Mandatory Prompt: Lara Croft: Tomb Raider — The Cradle of Life (2003)

Optional Prompts: (emotion) envy, (word) watch, (word) limitless

Bill was always Ginny Weasley's favorite sibling. He never teased her like Fred and George, didn't exclude her like Ron, or lecture her about rules like Percy. Charlie came in a close second, but Ginny simply liked hearing about curses more than magical creatures. And when he started exploring pyramids in Egypt, well, Ginny's future was settled. She was going to be a Curse Breaker, the muggle equivalent of an archeologist. Except unlike her older brother, she was going the more independent route instead of being ordered around by the goblins.

She kept her ambition a secret throughout her Hogwarts career. Most assumed after she joined the Quidditch team that she would follow that. Ginny didn't understand that but she did nothing to deny it even when her mother kept nagging at her about how that wasn't a good career. She wouldn't like the truth either.

The day after graduation she broke the news over breakfast.

"I've decided to start in Santorini, Greece," she finished, looking around for her family's reactions.

Her mother looked devastated. Her father, pensive. Ron, her sibling who still lived at home looked vaguely red and envious. Very typical reactions for the Weasley family.

"And how do you expect to get there, Ginny? You expect mom and dad to pay for vacations?" Ron asked.

"I'm not like you, Ron." She rolled her eyes, referring to last year when he graduated and was shocked to find out their parents expected him to pay for all his own stuff from now on. "I've saved up all of my allowance since I was seven. That's enough to start out on. And since this will be _my job,_ I'll be earning money as I go."

"What happened to Quidditch?" her mother asked. "You're such a good player."

"I never wanted to play, mom. And you didn't want me to either."

"It's better than this!"

Ginny sighed. Her mother wouldn't approve of anything she decided to do. Besides maybe being a housewife.

"Arthur, please, talk to your daughter!"

Her dad took off his glasses and rubbed his nose. They watched him silently, patiently. He sighed, put his glasses back on, and ran a hand over his bald head.

"Ginny, I think this will be harder for you than you are thinking," he said. "However, Molly, Ron, if she has the means to start out on her own, we can do nothing but support her."

Ginny beamed.

"Thank you, Dad! I'm going to do this. You just watch me," she said, even as her mother stormed out the room.

Her portkey was scheduled to leave at noon, and those few hours were tense in the Weasley household. Ginny didn't let it bother her though. It was almost a rite of passage for the Weasley children to piss off their mother with their career choices. The only ones who didn't were Percy and Ron, and really, did they really count? She didn't think so.

But despite the tension, Ginny set off with her plans so excited she could barely contain herself. She landed in the new land of sun, ocean breeze, and square white buildings. It was so colorful, so opposite of her homeland and exactly what she wanted.

The first day was drab. She checked into her hotel, got a bite to eat, and headed out to enjoy the scenery. It wasn't her exciting adventure but even then, the place was beautiful and she found herself splashing in the ocean after her dinner.

Her second day was when the adventure really started. She set off for the caves that she had researched. They were a little out of the way from where she was staying and she had to go through a couple of miles of forest in order to find them.

There was a couple of caves but the one she was looking for would have a magical signature. With a simple wave of her wand one of the caves was lit up with a bright white light. She stepped up to it with her wand raised. With a muttered incantation, a big dome was revealed to her with small crisscrossing lines of various colors.

Ginny had to spend time figuring out which curses were used and which counter curses were the right ones to undue them. There was an order she had to figure out. If she did it wrong then a trap would be set off, and didn't want to deal with the nastiness from any of those.

It took her nearly a week of spending multiple hours, but she eventually did get all of the curses undone. It was only then that she could finally enter the cave. That wasn't where the adventure really began.

She slowly made her way through the dark cave, twisting through the natural curves of the landscape and the wizard made ones. There were more curses, more traps, but Ginny got by them all.

It was dirty work, tiring work, but Ginny felt freer, more confident and happier than she had since her first year of Hogwarts. And when she finally made her way to the last chamber filled with gold and old chests, she wasn't surprised. She had known from the beginning she would succeed. She only was excited to take her treasure back home, and begin researching her next destination. Ginny could pick Kenya, the States, or even Australia. The possibilities were limitless.


End file.
